You need devotion. You need commitment.

If you were to type ‘how to achieve success’ into Google, you’d gain thousands of opinions from thousands of people within minutes. However, there’s only one real way you can open the door to success, and that’s by committing to the cause. If you aren’t committed, you’ll be striving to reach something you don’t actually want and your chances of achieving success will fall to almost nothing.

Passion v Commitment – Steph Curry is passionate about basketball, and J.K. Rowling is passionate about writing. As far as enjoying yourself goes, passion is a great way to get started, but you won’t be able to push yourself to the next level if you don’t have commitment. Why? Because passion can’t pull you through those dreaded tasks that offer no fun at all.

As soon as the passion runs dry and there’s one too many hard days, this is where the majority give up hope of ever achieving their dreams. Although the passion is still there deep within, they can’t get those unpleasant tasks done to jump over the hurdle.

If you want to take the next step and ensure you can keep progressing through the hard times, commitment will always be the most important factor. If you work as a waiter/waitress in a restaurant, you might hate the job, but you can also be committed to saving enough money to go on holiday or start your own business venture. Sure, passion would allow you to do well but it wouldn’t get you through those long, hard days working long shifts and this is the main difference.

Promoted from ‘Knowledgeable’ to ‘Expert’ – In life, there are various topics we seem to take an interest in whether it’s sport, cameras, documentaries, mountains, playing an instrument, or anything else along these lines. Whenever we have this interest, we build up a foundation of knowledge required to talk about the sport, play the instrument, take high-quality photos, etc. However, there’s one factor preventing us from becoming an expert on the topic; commitment.

Without commitment, there’s no desire to continue learning and become the best of the best. When you commit, those tough days suddenly seem easier. If we use the instrument as an example, commitment will see you continue even when the fun ends and even when everything seems impossible. Over time, you’ll see real improvements, and you can become an expert on the topic. Since we know that experience is the key to improving at something, the commitment to gain experience when the tough gets going is the best way to keep progressing.

Commitment is Within Every Successful Person – Whether it’s somebody at the top of your field or any other professional at the top of their game, you’ll find commitment in every single one of them. With businessmen and women, they’re committed to becoming the strongest in their field. With sports players, they’re committed to training every day and being able to play the sport professionally. With writers, they’re committed to writing even when the tough days come around. As soon as the commitment had been made, the passion became more than just a hobby for these people and they promised themselves success.

If you want to succeed this year, take this simple first step and commit to your cause. Whether it’s your career or perhaps even a relationship, commit to reaching your goals, and you’ll have the motivation to get through the tricky days (and weeks, months, and years)!